I understand that Facebook has algorithms attached to their social graph, in which public page posts that appear on your wall are determined by your level of engagement with said brand. And if you want to increase the number of people that view your content, then pay Facebook to enable Promoted Page Posts.

Say what? As an Artist, a Creator, you make the stuff that fuels their traffic, and now they want to charge you so that more of your fans will actually see your posts? Hmmm.

If you are crowing about the number of Likes on Facebook as a determinant of some social success, you are sadly misrepresenting yourself, since you’re lucky if 10% of your fans SEE your post, and if 1% actually take action on your post (like / share / comment / click, etc.). Dig deeper into your Insights, and see what steps you can take to create more SHARES.

Before / again — it’s nice to be LIKED, it’s better to be SHARED. Because chances are, I am not going to see anything your artist posted about himself. But more than likely, I will see something my friends post about your artist.

But then again, Facebook collapses multiple posts about a single subject. So if Rick Farman, Elaine VanCleave, and Josh Nicotra were posting pictures from Bonnaroo an hour ago, then you might not even see my post that Radiohead will be streaming live in 5 minutes.

Which is why I go out of my way NOT to post common keywords in a post, so maybe it WILL get noticed on your wall — which kinda flies in the face of searching for posts via hashtags & keywords, a common practice employed by Twitter, Instagram, and most blogging platforms.

And if you cross-post from another platform like YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, or Soundtracking, then Facebook even has a way of de-emphasizing posts from other platforms.

Or you passively share an item because you viewed it on Viddy or streamed it on Spotify. And even those actions get buried in the ecosystem.

Facebook has the power to turn the fire hose on & off — I saw all your Father’s Day wishes cascade down my wall all day Sunday, but on Friday & Saturday those early Father’s Day posts were all bunched together.

Would I recommend dropping Facebook as a promotional platform? Uh, no — being a teenager without Facebook is like walking around campus with a baby arm growing out of your forehead, you are a total outcast. Facebook is still THE largest platform for discovery & sharing on a daily basis.

But Facebook needs you just as much as you need them. I would recommend anyone with power work closer with Facebook to help them better leverage your content to drive more traffic, so they can sell more ads to corporations and local businesses — give power to Creators that post the stuff that fuel the traffic, and charge the Businesses who want to piggyback on that traffic to reach those viewers.

But it’s also up to you to make interesting content worthy of sharing.

In talking to a couple of marketers about this, it’s ironic that the new rules have raised the bar for brands to create more compelling content (earned media) to complement the ad dollars they already spend (paid media), yet is pushing bands to do the opposite — spend money on advertising (paid media) to promote the content they already create for a living (earned media).

So, what’s your advice in terms of what bands can do to get more shares?

jw

We all saw that MySpace’s downfall was relying on music, rather than interpersonal connections. People left for Facebook when there was no music on Facebook. Facebook has made it known that it doesn’t need bands, bands need Facebook. And I think that’s fair. Especially considering how eager bands are to spam the crap out of you. The backseat treatment bands are getting from Facebook is nothing if not deserved. If you’re trying to leverage Facebook in the same way that bands leveraged MySpace, you’re doing it wrong (all of that stuff belongs on your band website), & you’ll have a tough time getting any traction going forward.

Have public profiles for your band members, & post consistently from them on your band’s facebook page so that your fans are aware of the profiles. Have each member post iphone photos from the road, have them interact personally with fans, share stories, post in-progress shots of album artwork, etc. Share the personal experience each band member is having with the fans, & you’re not going to get any of the handicaps facebook is imposing on band pages, and you’re going to be using Facebook the way it’s intended to be used. The band facebook page should only be the jumping off point for a fan.